2011 Nobel Peace Prize shared by three women

Spring activist Tawakkul Karman won the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday in a nod to women’s empowerment.
The three women will share the 2011 award “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work,” Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said.
Sirleaf (72) made history when she became Africa’s first elected woman president in 2005, taking over a nation traumatised by 14 years of civil war that left 250 000 dead.
Sirleaf dedicated her Nobel to “all Liberian people.”
“This is a Nobel for African women – that’s how I would call it,” she told AFP by phone from New York.
“It’s for women in general, but specifically for African women.”
Gbowee said she turned to the person sitting next to her and said “I just won the Nobel.”
Another person sitting in front of her overheard the conversation and pulled up her picture on his BlackBerry, she said.
“African women in this world, women in general, there is this recognition now that we have our say,” she said.
“There is no way that anyone can minimise our role anymore.”
Tawakkul Karman, a 32-year-old Yemeni journalist and activist with three children, has braved several stints in prison in her struggle for women’s rights, press freedoms and the release of political prisoners in her country.
The Nobel jury hailed her for “in the most trying circumstances … (playing) a leading part in the struggle for women’s rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen.”
Karman, the first-ever Arab woman to receive the honour, dedicated her prize to “all the activists of the Arab Spring” – a reference to the protesters who took to the streets across the Arab world demanding democracy.
She told AFP her prize was “a victory for the Yemeni revolution and the peaceful character of this revolution.”
Karman has not left Sanaa’s Change Square – the focal point of demonstrations against president Ali Abdullah Saleh – for four months.
The journalist who in 2005 established a group called “Women Journalists without Chains,” has become a leading figure in the uprising against the veteran leader.
The one note of controversy following the awards was struck by Sirleaf’s rival in next Tuesday’s Liberian presidential elections, Winston Tubman, after observers said the Nobel could tip the polls in her favour after a tough campaign.
“Madam Sirleaf does not deserve a Nobel peace prize award because she committed violence in this country.
“This award is unacceptable and undeserving,” said Tubman, a 72-year-old Harvard-trained lawyer and veteran diplomat, told AFP by phone.
The Nobel Committee stressed though that Sirleaf deserved the honour for her contribution “to securing peace in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women.”
Geir Lundestad who heads the Norwegian Nobel Institute said, “These three ladies certainly have very important stories to tell,” adding he was perhaps most impressed with the least known of them, Karman, who was tirelessly working for human rights and democracy in “one of the most conservative and traditional countries in the world.”
Thursday’s laureates will receive their awards, each consisting of a diploma, a gold medal and a third of the US$1,48 million prize money, at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10. – AFP.